09 April 2018

H for Horse

Welcome! We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school? Its day eight and the alphabet is H.H is for Horse. These days, the only horses we see in Pune are the ones at Parks that take kids on joy rides. Or the pedigreed ones that are raced at the Race Course. I am going to take a liberty and extend the word Horse to Khacchar or Mule.

A Mule is the offspring of a male donkey and female horse (wisdom from Wikipedia). I have never really given much thought to this animal till I went on the Hampta Pass trek. On that trip, the mules were the most important part of our support team as they carried all our bags, tents and other logistical materials.

The unsung heros

In fact, our trek was amazing because of these silent mules that plodded along never protesting. Here are some images with my thoughts ...

Every morning, the mules were assembled and then sacks loaded up for the journey

The mules always started after us and easily overtook us every single day. They could easily and quickly navigate the moraine unlike us two-legged creatures!

At the end of the day, they were left free at the campsite.

This glorious looking place was a very challenging descent from the Hampta Pass to Shea Goru campsite.

These silent hardworking heros made our trek the wonderful experience that it was. I simply had to dedicate a post to them!